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Date:      Fri, 24 Jan 2003 19:15:28 -0500
From:      "Craig Reyenga" <creyenga@connectmail.carleton.ca>
To:        <Kevin_Stevens@pursued-with.net>
Cc:        <freebsd-questions@freebsd.org>
Subject:   Re: Filesystem tuning parameters
Message-ID:  <001301c2c406$ddf08310$0200000a@sewer.org>
References:  <20030124160148.R12356@babelfish.pursued-with.net>

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You're right, dedicating that much space to nothing is pretty pointless.
What I did was I edited /usr/src/sys/ufs/ffs/fs.h and changed:

#define MINFREE         8

to

#define MINFREE         0

and then recompiled the kernel and set my /home partition to use 0% free
space with tunefs. Now I get to use every last block, and it goes quite
fast, until I truly do run real low on free space. I believe this is the way
out, but I could be out to lunch on this one. Hope this helps.

-Craig

----- Original Message -----
From: "Kevin Stevens" <Kevin_Stevens@pursued-with.net>
To: <freebsd-questions@freebsd.org>
Sent: Friday, January 24, 2003 19:03
Subject: Filesystem tuning parameters
> I have a confusion about apparent conflicts between the minfree setting
> and time/space optimization.
>
> Per the manpage:
> minfree -
> Specify the percentage of space held back from normal users; the
> minimum free space threshold.  The default value used is 8%.
> This value can be set to zero, however up to a factor of three in
> throughput will be lost over the performance obtained at a 10%
> threshold.  Settings of 5% and less force space optimization to
> always be used which will greatly increase the overhead for file
> writes.
>
> space/time -
> The filesystem can either try to minimize the time spent allocat-
> ing blocks, or it can attempt to minimize the space fragmentation
> on the disk.  Optimization for space has much higher overhead for
> file writes.  The kernel normally changes the preference automat-
> ically as the percent fragmentation changes on the filesystem.
>
> I have a large (120GB) drive dedicated to data storage.  I don't want to
> commit 10% (12GB) of space to free space, and I don't need nearly that
> much to avoid overflowing the volume.  However, I want to maintain time
> optimization.  When it says that "settings of 5% and less force space
> optimization to be used", is that still the case when you specify time
> optimization??
>
> Also, why is "up to a factor of three in throughput" lost over the 10%
> setting?  Is that another allusion to space optimization going into
> effect, or is there something else happening?  I guess I don't understand
> the ramifications of the minfree setting.  Any suggestions or references?
>
> Thanks!
>
> KeS
>
>
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